


Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

by LesbianKJ



Series: Trojan War Tales [2]
Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, The Iliad - Homer
Genre: Dreams, Drug Use, Gen, Hera owes a lot of people favors, How Hypnos got married to Pasithea, Post-War, Repressed Memories, River Styx (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Sleep, Trojan War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24973369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianKJ/pseuds/LesbianKJ
Summary: If it wasn't for Hypnos, Hera wouldn't have gotten her war and for that, it's time for her to pay her dues.
Relationships: Ariadne/Dionysus (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Dionysus & Hera (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Hera & Hypnos (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Hypnos/Pasithea (mentioned)
Series: Trojan War Tales [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807561
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

“What did you do to this wine?” Hera asked.

She swirled the cup around, watching the dark liquid whirl with it. She raised her eyebrow and looked at the God of Wine and Parties, who stared back with an innocence that left him suspicious. 

“And what could I do to the wine?” Dionysus asked. “It would be foolish to drug the Queen of Olympus.”

“You say this as if it stopped you before,” Hera muttered as she started to hand back the drink.

“No!” Dionysus said, little too vehemently cause Hera to jerk her hand back. 

He forced a smile as Hera narrowed her eyes at him. 

“Dionysus-”   
  


“It’s just wine, please just take a sip,” Dionysus said. “You’ve been stressed lately and this is just to soothe your nerves.”

“And when have you ever cared about my wellbeing?” 

Dionysus rubbed his brow. “Is it too late to start now?”

Hera hesitated, wanting to say yes, but instead of answering him, she decided to take the risk. She brought the cup to her lips, staring intently at Dionysus as she allowed a silver of the drink to touch her lips and the tip of her tongue. She waited for any side effects and when there was none she felt braver to drink more of it. 

When she finished, she handed the cup back to Dionysus, still feeling wary about the whole thing. Especially when, once she was done, Dionysus was giving her an apologetic look. Her eyes began to droop as she staggered towards the young Olympian. He caught her before she collapsed to the floor, leading her to her bed. 

“He was very insistent about this,” Dionysus explained as if apologizing. “You know how these things go, follow instructions and you’ll be rewarded.”

As he laid her down, Hera wanted to yell, scream, demand who  _ he  _ was but she couldn’t move her mouth, let alone make a noise. She blinked once, twice before Dionysus’s face faded into darkness. 

Hera drifted off from reality to the land of dreams. A sea of darkness that she had grown accustomed to since she’s been rejecting Morpheus’s offer of dreams. What she was not accustomed to was the winged figure that stood above her, his head tilted as he examined her. 

She sat up with a huff, glaring at the figure. 

“What did you offer Dionysus that he would be bold enough to drug me and lie?” Hera asked as she rose from the floor. 

He shrugged. “To release Ariadne in the deep slumber that she’s in.”

Hera shook her head, running a hand through her hair. “And why go through so much trouble to talk to me, Hypnos?”

The twin brother of Thanatos, offered his hand as if words couldn’t fully explain the situation. Hera sighed, annoyed about the whole thing, accepting his hand and allowing him to take her wherever in the shadows that she needed to go. 

They hadn’t walked far before they were met by Morpheus. Confusion settled over her as she watched, the God of Dreams part a section of the shadows, letting light shine through. 

“Come,” Hypnos said, “There’s a favor of mine that you have forgotten about.”

Hera bristled. “You couldn’t come to me about it rather than kidnapping me?”

“Better you see it with your own eyes than hear it from my lips.”

They walked through the crack, leaving Morpheus behind and into the memories of Hera. He made his way to the section, locked away in a tomb called the Trojan War, and Hera swallowed hard at the sight of it. That war definitely wasn’t one of her finer moments, having let Eris’s power overcome her and open the dark parts of her open to feast. She had done a lot of things to ensure involvement in the war and to let the Greeks win. Hera wouldn’t be surprised if she offered Hypnos anything at all for him to put Zeus to sleep.

As they walked to the tipping point of the war, Hera grew more and more nervous, wondering what it was that she promised him. What, that he didn’t take right away, he was waiting for the right moment to claim it.

_ Hera knew the Underworld like the back of her hand, the many times she had escaped from Olympus for the comfort of her brother and his wife. The many walks that they took her as they allowed her to rant, left an imprint of the underworld’s structure in her mind. And this was not the first time, she needed something for Hypnos.  _

_ She entered his cave, head held high as she walked into his rooms, without being announced. The Son of Nyx, laid in his bed, high from the ground, his hands laid on his stomach as he tilted his head up at the ceiling.  _

_ “Hypnos, I have a request from you,” her voice was strong and confident. _

_ The God of Sleep glanced down once before he fluttered down to her, his feet softly touching the floor. His sleepy eyes stared into her guarded ones. _

_ “What can I do for the Queen of Gods?” _

_ “I need to put Zeus back to sleep again,” Hera said. _

_ “No.” He said. “Last time I did, he was ready to murder me. If it wasn’t for my mother’s protection, I would’ve been like the other titans, trapped in eternal punishment.” _

_ “He will not find out this time, I have a plan that will ensure it,” Hera said. _

_ “And I will not risk it, not without a price.” _

_ Hera bit her lip, thinking. _

_ “What of a beautiful golden seat that can never fall apart and a footstool to go with it?”  _

_ Hypnos snorted and shook his head. “Is this the best you can offer me for tricking Zeus again? I might as well go back to sleep and let you find another way to place Zeus to sleep.” _

_ He started to rise with one flap of his wings, but Hera was quick to grab his wrist. _

_ “Wait, what if I offer you the hand of Pasithea for marriage?” Hera asked. “I’ve seen how you look at her when you visit Olympus. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have her as a wife?” _

_ His eyes widened at this aspect and he fully placed his feet onto the ground. “Do not jest with me, Daughter of Rhea and Cronus. Do you mean this?” _

_ “It’s in my sphere of power. My domain. I  _ can  _ guarantee this one thing for you  _ if  _ you put Zeus into a deep slumber.” _

_ He stared into her eyes, searching deeply into them. _

_ “Will you be willing to swear this on the River Styx? I cannot take your word on this.” _

_ Hera scoffed. “I’m a woman of my word, there’s no need to bind me with the Styx on this.” _

_ “Either swear to the river of Styx or figure out another way to be a part of the war.” _

_ Hera narrowed her eyes at this before sighing.  _

_ “I swear to the River Styx that I will make Pasithea your bride.” _

Then memory disappeared into smoke, and Hypnos was staring at the Queen of Heavens expectantly. She stared back at him with a neutral look even though she wanted to pinch the bridge of her nose and groan. Sometimes her thirst for war always entangled her in protected promises and broken relationships. Usually, she could control that side of her but with the power of Eris and Gaea tapping into her darkest emotions and had released it to the mortal and god world alike. 

“I waited patiently for you Gods to clean your messes of the human world before I cashed in this favor,” Hypnos said. “It’s time for you to pay your debt.”

Hera inwardly cursed but didn’t give away her frustration on her face. “Fine.”

“I want it to be a private affair,” Hypnos continued. “I doubt once you tell her what you did, that she would want it to be the same.”

His words stung even though they rang true. She had treated Pasithea like nothing more than a toy, a means to an end when she was too a being with hopes and dreams and ambitions. She could already see now, the more tales that they would spin of her being an awful stepmother, making sure that it reached the mortal’s ears. 

This time though, she couldn’t blame anybody but herself for her greed of war. 


End file.
